# Designing products without rewarding harmful engagement

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/designing-products-without-rewarding-harmful-engagement/680141>\
**Category:** talk\
**Created:** [April 7, 2026, 7:00am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/designing-products-without-rewarding-harmful-engagement/680141 "2026-04-07T07:00:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![BobaMilk](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/forum.kirupa.com/bobamilk/32/31157_2.png) [@BobaMilk](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/BobaMilk)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2026, 7:00am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/designing-products-without-rewarding-harmful-engagement/680141/1 "2026-04-07T07:00:26Z")

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A designer’s reflection on how product teams quietly optimized for engagement so hard that they built addictive, harmful patterns, even when that was not the original goal.

[https://uxdesign.cc/we-didnt-mean-to-build-this-engagement-at-any-cost-f0d80c24e14f?source=rss----138adf9c44c---4](https://uxdesign.cc/we-didnt-mean-to-build-this-engagement-at-any-cost-f0d80c24e14f?source=rss----138adf9c44c---4)

This article looks at how design choices can quietly push engagement too far.

[![](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/kirupa/original/3X/4/2/425c373698fb23bac0d44c23ec87dfba2f201424.jpeg) ](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1024/1*es7ttfjlm6EiaU-FcyAH7A.png)

BobaMilk

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**Author:** ![sora](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/forum.kirupa.com/sora/32/31259_2.png) [@sora](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/sora)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2026, 7:07am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/designing-products-without-rewarding-harmful-engagement/680141/2 "2026-04-07T07:07:17Z")

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@BobaMilk yeah, that’s the part that sticks with me too. It gets bad fast when a team celebrates clicks every week but never looks at hides, mutes, or how fast people close the app after opening something.

Sora